Spring has sprung and footings started...

Well the last few days have felt like spring in Seattle....a few sun breaks, rhodies starting to bloom and Logan decided to get out there and check the water temp.......COLD!

Collin and I were out on the job site this weekend with our friend Harold and we found a treasure buried in the side of the hardpan wall.....an empty syrup bottle from sometime in the 20th century....COOL!

Now we are back in action and the footings work started today.....we checked out the forms tonight....

Max and Daniel came over tonight to check out the progress, too.....

Ready for the footings....

The boys and I went down to the job site tonight to check on the progress while Shelli was making her famous Tilapia.  We arrived to find a giant mound of dirt covered in plastic....apparently we needed to move some serious earth to make way for the footings.  Based on the limited space available to stockpile the dirt we'll pour the garage foundation later.

Here is video that shows the excavation for the footings.......(nothing better than a giant pit to run around in)

A couple more shots of the excavation....

Saturday afternoon, checking the foundation hole...

It was a beautiful, peaceful rainy day down at the lake.....

Here is the foundation hole where the east side of the house will rest....you will walk out from the basement onto a patio that ties into the switch back path....

Looking northeast.....

Looking east....

Looking southeast.....

Logan, Collin and Braden couldn't make a trip to the job site without a little king of the mountain!

Enjoy your weekend!

Preparing the foundation site....

More site work today to get ready to excavate for the foundation.....

Logan was quick to find the business end of the digger....

They delivered the honey bucket today but Braden was more interested in the 'mud tracks' that were stamped in the clay....looked like an America's Finest Chocolate Bar!  

As we were leaving a dump truck showed up with crushed rock for the staging area.....

Happy Valentines Day!

Clearing a path....

These guys are able to make good progress in a day.....as of last night the entire foundation of the original house was carted off....

Today the crew made a path down the lot and removed the vegetation where the new house will sit....fortunately, a couple weeks ago, we were able to save many of the plants that were movable....some we relocated temporarily down by the water, some of our neighbors came over and rescued a few plants and then Uncle Brian and Dad came over and filled up Uncle Jim's truck with lots of ferns, a couple giant hydrangea and some other plants...

Anyway....here is what it looked like tonight.....Collin and I went over to check the progress.....

I don't think I mentioned that a few days ago I recovered ~1500 bricks from the original house and neatly stacked them on the south side of the lot where I thought they would be out of the way.  Unfortunately, I received an email tonight that they need to be gone.  Shelli and I (and Ralph) loaded and unloaded 4 truckloads which are now stacked at our rental house.  The pile doesn't look like much but 1500 bricks moved twice is a fine workout.  Shelli is a good sport!!!

Down comes the chimney.....

Logan in the CAT.....

The Demo Starts

Here are a few pictures and movies of the start of our project....